Marianus Scotus

ON BLESSED MARIANUS SCOTUS, ABBOT OF THE ORDER OF SAINT BENEDICT, AND BLESSED MURCHERATUS THE RECLUSE, AT REGENSBURG IN BAVARIA.

YEAR OF CHRIST 1088.

Preliminary Commentary.

Marianus, Abbot, at Regensburg in Bavaria (Blessed) Murcheratus, Recluse, at Regensburg in Bavaria (Blessed)

By I. B.

Section I. Monasteries of the Scots in Germany.

[1] The very many holy men from Scotland who have visited Germany and Gaul for the past ten centuries -- either to disseminate the faith of Christ among nations given over to the worship of idols, or to propagate the pursuit of piety by their words and examples -- Holy men from Scotland preach in Germany, almost all established monasteries of religious men in those places, and sometimes individuals founded several, as can be seen in the Acts of Saints Columban, Gall, Fursey, and others. For these wise men understood that those lodgings were no less necessary for themselves -- where, wearied by the labors and hardships endured for the glory of Christ, they might for a time refresh themselves and draw new spirit from the meditation of divine things -- and build monasteries: than they were as training grounds for those whom they designated as their helpers and successors in the holy work. For they understood that neither the sincerity of faith nor the integrity of morals could endure among the peoples without teachers, nor could teachers be formed for rightly performing their office unless there were certain schools, as it were, of both piety and learning, from which they might first receive instruction and -- if any contagion should cling from the company of profane men -- salutary admonitions and examples from time to time. Francois Guillimann, in his book on the Bishops of Strasbourg, suggests another reason for building such dwellings for monks: that they might be, as it were, receptacles and hospices, which would freely and willingly be open to those who, from Scotland and Britain and other most remote provinces, made pilgrimages to visit Rome, the citadel of the Christian religion, and other places famous for miracles and the relics of the Saints. Marianus Scotus, who lived some six hundred years ago, does not hesitate to call those ancient monasteries "the monasteries of the holy Scots." Thus in Book 3, at the year of Christ 937: "The monasteries of the holy Scots, of Saint Gall and of Saint Boniface, are consumed by fire." Whether Saint Boniface, the founder of the monastery of Fulda, was a Scot, we shall investigate elsewhere.

[2] In the ages that followed, other monasteries were built for the Scots -- Others make pilgrimages there, not now preaching the faith of Christ, but commended to the love and favor of the peoples by pilgrimages undertaken on the pretext of piety. The reasons for making pilgrimages were many. For some, as is said below in the Life of Blessed Marianus, Chapter 3, Number 14, "leaving behind their possessions and dear kinsmen, casting aside perishable things for the eternal with a cheerful spirit, for the sake of mortification, and through so many seas and through so many pathless kingdoms, followed Christ." And, as in Chapter 6, Number 32, "leaving the sweet soil of their native land -- a soil sequestered from every kind of serpent and all noxious vermin -- the mountains and hills and valleys and forests suited for hunting, the most pleasant streams of rivers and green lands from pure springs," and so forth: "like sons of Abraham the Patriarch, casting themselves into the land which God had shown them." The same reason was expressed by Emperor Henry IV in a diploma given on the Kalends of February, in the year of the Lord's Incarnation 1089, Indiction 12: "Certain men of Scottish origin, for the sake of crucifying the body and saving the soul, had gone into exile from their homeland, and for a long time were visiting places of prayer," etc. For some, by order of their Superiors, a pilgrimage of this kind was imposed by their superiors even for sins that were not most grave, as we said on the 30th of January when we treated of Blessed Amnichad, whom his Superior ordered to leave Ireland for this fault alone: that he had drawn drink for the guests without his Superior's command. This he humbly fulfilled, and thus, coming to Fulda, he died as a recluse, living holily. By divine prompting. Others, finally, were driven to this voluntary exile by a certain hidden instinct of God, or sometimes by manifest revelation, as we said on this very day about Saint Alto, who, "admonished by the Lord through a vision, following the example of Abraham the Patriarch, was to leave his land and his kindred and cross over into the distant region of the Germans."

[3] Having perceived their virtue, many Abbots and Bishops were eager to keep them in their company -- which Christoph Brower, our colleague, writes in Book 1 of the Antiquities of Fulda, Chapter 20, about Richard, Abbot of Fulda: Kindly received by various Bishops: who, "knowing that monks of Saint Benedict, foreign travelers from across the sea, had come to Germany from Scotland with an outstanding zeal for the more perfect life and with strictness of discipline, took pains to summon many monks of the Scottish nation to Fulda, to shake off the torpor of his own and to kindle virtue by example; and by their careful studies of life and learning, to revive the ancient piety and erudition among his own." Abbesses themselves, as will appear below, even gave them Cells and monasteries, so that by their teaching and examples they and their communities might be trained in piety. For this reason many monasteries were built for the Scots in various places. Whence monasteries were founded. Concerning the one at Cologne, Marianus Scotus the Chronographer testifies at the year 975: "Eberger, Archbishop of Cologne, dedicated to the Scots in perpetuity the monastery of Saint Martin in Cologne," At Cologne, over which the first Abbot, Mimborinus Scotus, presided for 12 years -- whom Aegidius Gelenius, that distinguished man, in Book 13 of his work on the greatness of Cologne, Chapter 13, simply calls "Blessed."

[4] Then in the year 1036, as Lambert of Hersfeld writes, a monastery of the Scots was built in Erfurt At Erfurt, "by the Lord Walter von Glisberg,

who was buried there." And the History of Erfurt on the Landgraves of Thuringia, published by Pistorius, Chapter 11: "At that time the noble man Walter von Glisberg founded the monastery of the Scots in Erfurt, in the year of the Lord 1036." Thereafter at Regensburg a double monastery was built by the Scots themselves, At Regensburg, and elsewhere, one called consecrated Saint Peter, the other Saint James, of which we shall soon treat, as well as of the one of Saint James at Würzburg, Saint Giles at Nuremberg, the Holy Sepulcher at Eichstätt, and Saints Mary and George at Vienna.

[5] In these monasteries, moreover, only Scots dwell and no others, To be inhabited by Scots alone, as is either enacted or attested by Emperor Frederick II in a diploma given in the year of the Lord's Incarnation 1212, Indiction 1, which Wiguleus Hundius recounts in Volume 2 of the Metropolis of Salzburg, where he treats of the monastery of Saint James at Regensburg. But Emperor Sigismund, who inserted this very diploma of Frederick into his own decree, given in the year 1422, speaks thus: and Irish, "Indeed, on behalf of the devout religious -- the Abbot, Prior, and Convent of the monastery of the Scots and Irish from Greater Scotland at Regensburg -- a suppliant petition was presented to our Highness," etc. Aventinus, in Book 6 of the Annals of Bavaria, writes thus about them: "Ireland is an island that lies beyond Britain in the northern ocean... That Ireland, of which I speak, was among our ancestors a fertile source of most religious and most learned men. Thence Columban, Kilian, and many others migrated into Germany: they are now called Scots. The holy Marianus came from there with six fellow students to Regensburg, and dwelt in a church outside the walls of the city. A great number of his countrymen, attracted by the generosity of the Bavarians, who were formerly Scots, quickly flocked together." Our Matthaeus Rader, in Volume 2 of Bavaria Sancta, has this: "Muricherodach, an Irishman by origin, who set out from Old Scotland, preceded Marianus his countryman, and was the very first of that nation who came to Regensburg in Bavaria... Meanwhile there came from the same holy man's homeland and municipality the Lord Marianus." And later: "When this report was carried to Ireland, it stirred up a great number of pious young men and men to join Marianus in the same community." And afterward, where he treats of Blessed Marianus: "Marianus, therefore, a Scot by origin, or Irishman -- for Old Scotland is the same as Ireland, as all geographers teach, which forms an island by itself; whereas the other Scotland is merely a corner of the island of Britain, of which we do not treat here. Ireland, however, bore a double name from of old, so that it was called both Ireland and Scotland."

[6] In almost the same vein our Jakob Gretser, in Book 1 of the Observations on the Saints of Eichstätt, Chapter 19: "The reason why monasteries were built for the Scots in various places in Germany is none other than the gratitude of the Germans toward those who had deserved well of them: for because they had received from Ireland -- which was called Old Scotland -- and from Britain itself, to which the name of England belongs (whose northern part is today called Scotland), various preachers of the divine word, they judged it fair to establish fixed and stable dwellings for them, to which they might, if perchance necessary, withdraw, and from which abundant laborers might be sent out into the Lord's field." And shortly after: "Although there is no doubt that such hospices, or lodgings, or hospitals (for so they are named even in ancient documents) were originally built chiefly for the Irish, who were the old Scots, or rather for all those who from the British Isles betook themselves to Germany for the sake of spreading the faith, claimed by the modern Scots, in later times, however, the younger Scots alone -- who are a colony of the old Scots, that is, of the Irish, and hold the northern part of Albion (which is now England) -- claimed the right to the Scottish monasteries for themselves, and claim it also in this age; nor would they, if I am not mistaken, co-opt any Irishman or Englishman into their congregation."

[7] But the Scots themselves were also dispossessed of many monasteries. Aventinus, in the Annals of Bavaria, Book 7, at the year 1413: Some taken from both, "At Vienna and at Nuremberg the Scots were expelled, and the churches handed over to the natives." Concerning the one at Vienna, George Conn, Book 1 on the state of religion among the Scots: "It retains to this day its name from the Scots, although, contrary to the most pious will of the founder, Germans occupy it." Trithemius, in the Chronicle of the monastery of Saint James at Würzburg: "In the year of our Lord Jesus Christ 1497, Indiction 2, upon the death of Philip, the last Abbot of this monastery from the Scottish nation, the place was left not only destitute of a pastor but also empty of sheep. For under the governance of the Scots the present monastery had come to such desolation that the Abbot, without monks, bore the empty name of Pastor. For many years the Abbots governed badly here, until at last the monastery came to the utmost poverty." He then narrates how discipline was restored there, and other monks introduced, over whom -- after Kilian Crisp of Ochsenfurt -- Trithemius himself was appointed Abbot. Our Jakob Gretser, in the Observations on Eichstätt, Book 1, Chapter 19, cited above: "In many places those monasteries perished -- not only where heresy holds the reins of government, but also among Catholics -- whether this happened through a dearth of inhabitants, or through neglect of religious discipline, or for some other cause. Recently, however, Scots have been restored to many such monasteries." Some restored.

Section II. The monastery of Blessed Marianus. His writings.

[8] The monastery of Saint Peter near the city of Regensburg, which Blessed Marianus built, as we shall soon relate -- some think it is much more ancient. For since it is established that Charlemagne, either personally or through his Generals, waged war [The monastery of Saint Peter Consecrated at Regensburg was not built in the time of Charlemagne,] not only with the Bavarians and their Duke Tassilo, but also with the Slavs, and on their behalf with the Huns, and that when these were driven from Noricum and part of Pannonia he took care that the faith of Christ be widely propagated -- hence this monastery, says Wiguleus Hundius, "which is commonly called Saint Peter Consecrated, or 'Weyh-Sankt-Peter,' is said to have been begun in the time of Charlemagne and placed on the Hill of Victory outside the walls, where the bodies of the slain were buried; consecrated miraculously by Saint Peter from heaven, according to the apocryphal Chronicle of that monastery," etc. "But since that place was too narrow and confined to hold so many brethren, a monastery of the Scots was built on a certain flat and broad field belonging to the Lord Albert, a nobleman of Mittersill in the mountains, who resided on his own estates at Pfrandenhausen, in honor of Saint James, under Dominicus, the first Abbot of that place, in the time of Bishop Erkenfrid of Regensburg and of Emperor Lothar, around the year 845. Thus the Chronicles of the Bishops of Regensburg." So far Hundius, who soon refutes these claims. He treats elsewhere of Erkenfrid, reporting that he was made Bishop of Regensburg in the year 842 and held the See for ten years.

[9] Aventinus in Book 4 of the Annals of Bavaria sets forth that fable more explicitly: "The ruler of the Franks, having settled affairs in Bavaria, having placed garrisons on the frontier and appointed Gerold as governor, withdrew to Aachen for winter quarters. And that Charlemagne fought with the people of Regensburg and with those hostile to our religion, that the heavenly powers and spirits took part in the battle, that a sword was sent down from heaven to Charles, that he himself attacked the Bavarians, a victory obtained by miracle, subjugated them under the yoke of the Christian religion, captured the city by force, and turned the site of his camp into a church which was consecrated by Saint Peter -- as witnessed by night in the darkness by I know not what Scots -- we must confidently judge to be false." He then refutes that narrative at greater length with many words -- a narrative indeed false and futile, but refuted immoderately, as is his wont, not to say impudently -- and again in Book 5.

[10] Blessed Marianus Scotus built the monastery of Saint Peter in the eastern suburb of the city of Regensburg, three centuries after Charlemagne -- but by Blessed Marianus Scotus, not that Marianus whose Chronicle survives, although both lived in the same age; so that Wilhelm Eisengrein in his Catalogue of Witnesses to the Truth thought them one person, where he joins to Marianus the Chronographer the companions John, Candidus, Clement, and Isaac, whom some think is the Chronographer, who were the companions of the other Marianus; and adds Donatus and Magnald, and Mucheridach (as he calls him), who had come to Regensburg long before Marianus. Lazius, in Book 7 on the Migrations of the Nations, calls him Muricherodach and gives him as a companion of Marianus, along with Clement and Donatus. Aventinus, in Book 5 of the Annals of Bavaria, if he did not consider him the same as the Chronographer, at least attributed to him an equal praise of erudition -- more splendidly than truly -- or his equal in learning, writing thus: "In this same period the holy Marianus Scotus, a poet and theologian of distinction, second to none in his age, together with his fellow philosophers John and Candidus, Clement, Donatus, Murcheridach, Magnald, and Isaac -- who lived a hundred years -- came to Germany. They then proceeded to Regensburg, where they were received with hospitality by Hemma, head of the convent of virgins, in the upper monastery. Willa, the head of the same community, gave them the church of Saint Peter outside the city, called Weichs, with the consent of Bishop Otto. Mathilda, head of the lower monastery, provided beer and ale. They themselves, with the help of good people, built dwellings for themselves, lived day by day, and by teaching and interpreting the sacred writings, and by copying, acquired their sustenance and great glory." Thus Aventinus.

[11] Certainly, as our Rader noted in Volume 2 of Bavaria Sancta, it was easy here to be confused, who was his countryman and contemporary, since both lived in the same century and under the same Emperors, and both wrote, and both flourished in the reputation of holiness, and both had the same homeland and the same name. And who would not have sworn, upon a superficial inspection of the matter, that they were one? Especially since the death of both almost coincided in the same year, when the Chronographer died in the year 1086 and this other Marianus of ours followed two years later. However, that they were clearly two different persons is established first from the Chronographer himself, but certainly a different person, who relates about himself at the year 1056 that he was tonsured as a monk at Cologne on the Kalends of August; but our Marianus never saw Cologne, as will be demonstrated from his Acts written below. The same Chronographer, at the year 1058, as he himself testifies of himself, came to Fulda and there spent ten years enclosed in seclusion. Our Marianus here never reached those parts. The Chronographer at last proceeded to Mainz, and again, excluded from the company of all men for eighteen years, alone and enclosed, he endured until his death, as is recorded in the Appendix to Marianus at the year 1086. Our Marianus, at Saint Peter Consecrated near the city of Regensburg, was buried and shone with great miracles. The former was a master and interpreter of divine and natural wisdom, skilled also in mathematics and in all antiquity, a learned historian; he composed and published many volumes of his own invention, of which his Chronicle is still in circulation today. Our Marianus was a man as holy as he was simple; he produced nothing from his own intellect except the extracts he collected from certain holy Fathers on the Psalms. A good copyist. He was merely a copyist, transcribing other people's volumes, especially sacred ones. More differences, if indeed more are needed, will appear in the course of the narrative itself. So far Rader. But as for his confident assertion that Blessed Marianus never saw Cologne or Fulda, I do not know whether he can prove it. Could he not have traveled that way, especially if he also came to Bamberg?

[12] Concerning the writings of Blessed Marianus, Aventinus in Book 5 has this: "At Regensburg, in the lower monastery, there survive the hymns of the divine David, with commentaries, written on parchment -- the work of Marianus. Who also collected extracts from the Fathers on the Psalms: I append his preface verbatim, so that credence may be given: 'In the year of the Lord's Incarnation 1074, in the reign of the young Emperor Henry, with the Abbess Mathilda governing the abbey of Saint Mary and Saint Erhard, in the eleventh year of the nineteen-year cycle, Indiction 12, Marianus Scotus, in the seventh year of his pilgrimage, collected these modest streams from the deep sea of the holy Fathers -- namely Jerome, Augustine, Cassiodorus, Arnobius, and from the works of Saint Gregory -- and for the salvation of his own soul, in honor of the Savior, our Lord Jesus Christ, and of His Mother, the ever-Virgin Mary, and of Saint Erhard the Confessor, wrote and compiled them into one book. For not all people seek with eager love of heart the lengthy and salutary expositions of the Catholic Fathers. There are also many who, even if they wished to read or possess such works, yet being occupied by lesser* means or understanding, or some other existing cause, cannot find and read them. It shall never be given out for copying outside the monastery unless a suitable security is left in exchange for it. He began on the feast of George and finished on the feast of Matthew and Emmeran.'"

[13] Thomas Dempster, in Book 12 of the Ecclesiastical History of the Scottish Nation, reports that Marianus wrote a Rule for the Brethren, Book 1, and other works which are preserved in manuscript at the same place. Aventinus could indeed have seen the commentaries of the ancient Fathers compiled by Marianus and reduced into one volume; Did he also write other things? but I judge that Dempster neither saw them nor heard anyone testify, when he himself was writing in the year of Christ 1627, that the writings of Marianus were still preserved in the monastery of Saint Marianus. For, as Rader wrote -- three years before Dempster -- in Volume 2 of Bavaria Sancta, published in the year 1624: They do not survive, at least (as Dempster claims) in his monastery, "That edifice outside the city wall, which took its name from the place Consecrated to Saint Peter, today is no more, having been utterly destroyed in the year 1552, during the episcopate of George, along with some other churches, under the pretext of war, and ultimately converted into a charnel-house for heretics. And thus, together with the monastery, almost the entire memory of Blessed Marianus was deleted and abolished -- a loss which we charge to the heretics and to their author Acheron, as is customary." As for Rader's writing that the monastery was destroyed under Bishop George, this should not be understood as though he himself ordered or knew of it; rather, many things were done recklessly at that time against his will by those who were supposed to defend the city against factious Princes, as Hundius shows in Books 1 and 3 of the Metropolis.

[14] Not only Marianus but also his companions devoted themselves to the writing of books, says Aventinus in Book 6: "By the devotion of a rather difficult religious life, by the quite arduous abstinence of their austerities, Did his companions also write? by writing, by teaching, they won for themselves the greatest glory. They were a spectacle and a great example of piety, not only to the Bavarians but also to their neighbors; they pleased everyone; with one voice all said all good things about them." But the Life, which we shall give presently, states only that Marianus labored in writing, while the others toiled in preparing parchment. John, however, Marianus's companion, was a Priest, as is said in the Life of Blessed Altmann, Bishop of Passau, on the 8th of August, and of great reputation for holiness and wisdom.

* Perhaps "understanding"?

Section III. The era, feast day, and Life of Blessed Marianus. The memory of Blessed Murcheratus.

[15] Wolfgang Lazius, in Book 7 on the Migrations of the Nations, when he describes the family tree of the Counts of Rietenberg, says that Marianus and his companions were received by a grandson (or even great-grandson) of Saint Leopold, Margrave of Austria, [Blessed Marianus was not received by a grandson or great-grandson of Saint Leopold,] when they first came to Regensburg. He has this: "Henry II, Burgrave, from Bertha, daughter of Saint Leopold, Margrave of Austria, left a third Henry and Frederick. He (was it Frederick, or his father?) received Saint Marianus Scotus with his companions Isaac, Clement, Donatus, Candidus, John, and Muricherodach when they came to Regensburg, learned men, and first commended them to the Vestals, who first granted them the chapel of Saint Peter outside the city. Then, with the help of the Bogen family and the Counts of Labar, he had a proper monastery built, which still exists at Regensburg and is called the Scottish monastery." Thus Lazius. Saint Leopold married Agnes, daughter of Emperor Henry IV and sister of Henry V, widow of Frederick, Duke of Swabia, to whom she had already borne Conrad III, later Emperor, and Frederick, father of Emperor Frederick Barbarossa, in the year 1106 (as will be stated on the 15th of November in his Life). From their children, Leopold betrothed Bertha, or (as others write) Bereta, his first daughter, to Henry, Burgrave of Regensburg, says Cuspinian in his Austria. Henry was Leopold's son-in-law, the brother of Otto, Burgrave of Regensburg of the Rietenberg family, as is said below in the Life, Number 13. Otto is mentioned in a diploma of Henry V dated in the year 1111. Whence it follows that Marianus could not have come to Regensburg until around the year 1100, if he was first received by that man -- or even later, if by his son Frederick.

[16] Thomas Dempster strays even further from the truth in Book 12 of the Ecclesiastical History of the Scottish Nation, writing thus: "Saint Marianus, different from the monk and Historian, came to Regensburg with six companions who had professed the monastic life, and, kindly received by Frederick, grandson of Saint Leopold through Bertha, obtained the chapel of Saint Peter outside the city; afterward, with the help of the Bogen family and the Counts of La Bar, Much less did he live to the year 1163, he founded a monastery which in that century was called Scottish, or Scoticum, as it is called today... He flourished in the year 1163, in which he died. The monastery was founded in the year 1158." It is not worthwhile to refute these claims more fully, since Blessed Marianus himself, as we have seen, says the year of Christ 1074 was the seventh of his pilgrimage; since Henry IV confirmed for the Scots -- whose leader was Marianus -- possession of the church of Saint Peter Consecrated in the year 1089; and since the very Life that we shall give clearly attests the same; and since the Life of Blessed Altmann, on the 8th of August, reports that John, Marianus's companion, was received by him in the monastery of Göttweig in Austria, and Blessed Altmann himself is established to have died in the year 1091. It is probable, as our Rader writes, that Marianus died around the year 1088; since the seventh Abbot after him of the monastery of Saint Peter, a man named Domnus (as is stated in Chapter 3, Number 15), lived in the time of Henry V, who was an Emperor who died in the year 1125.

[17] But on what day Blessed Marianus died Rader does not indicate, since, with the destruction of the monastery of Saint Peter Consecrated, almost his entire memory was simultaneously abolished. John Colgan, in his Notes on the Life of Blessed Muricherodach on the 17th of January, writes that he will give the Life of Saint Marianus on the 17th of April; Nor did he die on April 17, but he does not disclose on what writer's testimony he learned that this was his feast day. And yet in no Martyrology that we have seen is the name of this Marianus inscribed on that day. It is the other Marianus, the Chronographer, who appears on that date in Ferrari's General Catalogue and Wilson's Anglican Martyrology in its first edition, though deleted in the later edition. But, as we said on the 30th of January, neither on what day he died is known to us, nor whether he was counted among the Saints, although Wion, as is his custom, simply calls him "Saint Marianus" in Book 2 of the Lignum Vitae, Chapter 72.

[18] David Camerarius, in Book 3 on the Piety of the Scots, records our Marianus on the 4th of July with these words: "Saint Marianus, Confessor and Abbot in that famous monastery of the Scots at Regensburg in Germany. Or on July 4, In Caledonia, a province of Scotland whose chief city is Duncaledonia, he first lived as a monk, not without a great reputation for virtue." There were once the Caledonian peoples and the Caledonian forest in the northern part of Britain, which is now called Scotland; and the episcopal city of Dunkeld, commonly called Dunkell, situated in the province of Perthshire on the river Tay, many conjecture to have received its name from the Caledonian inhabitants or founders. George Buchanan, in Book 7 of the History of Scotland, calls the Bishopric founded there by King David "Caledonian." But on what authority does Camerarius prove that Marianus was a monk there, when the author of his Life, who lived with his disciples, testifies in Number 7 that he came "from the borders of Ireland," and in Number 14 that he was "originally from the northern parts of Ireland"? And neither does he offer any reason or witness for placing him on that day.

[19] In the manuscript codex of the Carthusian house of Gaming, from which our John Gamansius transcribed the Life of Blessed Marianus for us, there was added but on February 9, "the 5th day before the Ides of February"; so that one may conjecture that either the Author indicated this as his feast day, or the copyist who once transcribed it. The same Author, moreover, professes himself to be Irish in Chapter 1, Number 1, Whence is the Life here published? writing thus: "Wherefore our predecessors -- and we likewise, poor followers of Christ -- for the remedy of souls, from the borders of the West, composed by an Irish monk at Regensburg, following the naked Christ in nakedness, leaving our homeland and dear kinsmen for the love and desire of the heavenly life, lest we seem to be Aborigines, like the vulture and the heron, whose birth and end are known to God alone -- how from the sweet soil of Ireland, under what teacher, under what princes, we began, by the leading of divine grace, to inhabit the suburbs of the illustrious city and pious mother of pilgrims, especially of the Scots -- the city of Regensburg -- I shall commend, after the measure of my smallness, however stammering in a childish and simple style, to the faithful of times to come."

[20] The same author indicates his own era in Chapter 2, Number 10: "As Father Isaac, who had lived one hundred and twenty years, his contemporary and one who lived under his direction and obedience, often related to me, not without tears." And in Chapter 5, Number 25, speaking of Declan, Abbot of the monastery of Saint Giles at Nuremberg, who was the chaplain of Emperor Conrad III (who died in the year 1152) and of his successor Frederick Barbarossa, he says: "He was a man useful to our age." After the year 1160. And finally in Chapter 6, Number 31, he cites the diplomas of Pope Adrian IV, who died in the year 1159, and of Alexander III, who succeeded him. The title of the Life of Blessed Marianus in the cited codex was this: "The Life of Saint Marianus, Monk and Confessor, of the Order of Saint Benedict of the Scots, written by a certain person almost his contemporary, of the same Order (as it appears); in which likewise are related the foundation and progress of the monastery of Saint James of the Scots at Regensburg, and incidentally are mentioned the foundations of houses of the same Order at Vienna and Würzburg, Nuremberg and Eichstätt, together with certain other memorable things, especially of Regensburg." Rader published some part of this Life in Volume 2 of Bavaria Sancta, and does not appear to have had the complete text.

[21] It is fitting here to join Murcheratus to Marianus, since the deeds of both are commemorated together and his feast day is otherwise unknown. And indeed Rader calls Blessed Muricherodach "enclosed" -- that is, a recluse; and thus begins his eulogy: Blessed Murcheratus the Recluse, "Muricherodach, an Irishman by origin, who set out from Old Scotland, preceded Marianus his countryman, and was the very first of that nation who came to Regensburg in Bavaria, and there, near the upper convent of virgins, enclosed in an eternal cloister, persevered in vows and prayers and the utmost severity of life to an advanced age and to his very last day." And then he concludes thus: "And so the Lord Muricherodach was, as it were, the first foundation and the first stone of all these many monasteries in Germany founded for the Scots or Irish, even though he himself never went out from his cell. But the fame of virtue and the fragrance of a holier life are contained by no bolts of cloister walls; indeed, the more strictly they are guarded, the more widely they are spread."

[22] He dwelt in no monastery of men at Regensburg, much less was he Abbot of Saint Peter Consecrated -- which Aventinus falsely wrote, as he did many things, in Book 6 of the Annals of Bavaria: "The holy Marianus Scotus," he says, "his countrymen Isaac -- who lived one hundred and twenty years -- Clement, Muricherodach, Not an Abbot, John, Candidus, and Donatus came to Regensburg in Bavaria in the reign of Emperor Henry IV; near the church of Saint Peter outside the walls, small dwellings were built for them by the citizens, especially by a certain Bezelin, as I related above in the fifth book." But Murcheratus came to Regensburg long before Marianus and lived as a recluse enclosed in a cell near the upper convent of virgins. John migrated to Austria, Clement to Jerusalem. Donatus is mentioned nowhere.

[23] Our Andreas Brunner, in Part 3 of the Annals of Bavaria, Book 11, rashly following Aventinus, makes Murecheridach an inhabitant of the monastery of Saint Peter: "From the farthest islands of the Scots," he says, "equally illustrious names followed in the deserted station. The beginnings and progress of the colony thus led were described by posterity in a separate account, nor a monk at the church of Saint Peter Consecrated, not without the marvels of fables, which I neither intend to report nor to refute; they collapse by their own emptiness. From public documents it is clear that, while Bishop Otto was still alive, some of that nation came to Regensburg, and having received the care of the church of Saint Peter, commonly called Consecrated, lived on the collected offerings of the pious; they then devised dwellings, the cramped quarters of which Otto of Rietenberg and many others (the names survive on parchments) soon afterward expanded. Of the first inhabitants, the memory of Marianus and Mureheridach is the more illustrious, whom their own virtue and public fame raised to the level of the heavenly saints." Thus he. He does not, however, seem to have seen the account of the deeds of Marianus and his companions that we give here, but only the apocryphal Chronicles of Saint Peter Consecrated, concerning which see Hundius, Volume 3, and Aventinus. Perhaps, however, Brunner calls them inhabitants not so much of the monastery of Saint Peter as of the city of Regensburg.

[24] John Colgan, in the Acts of the Saints of Ireland, places the feast of Blessed Marcheratus on the 17th of January, His feast day is unknown, as we said, but confirms it on the authority of no writer; he describes his deeds from Rader and Aventinus and calls him Muricherodach, Murcheridach, Morcheratus, Murcherdach, Murcherdacus, and Murchertach. The name variously expressed. We, as we found it in the manuscript, call him Murcheratus; and because we do not know his feast day, and because we do not labor to fill individual days with the names of Saints gathered from all quarters, we leave him with Marianus. A name akin to this was in use in the same Ireland around the same times -- Murchardi; for Dermot, son of Murchardus, commonly known as Dermot Mac Morrough, Year of death. was King of Leinster, who in the time of King Henry II invited the English into Ireland. Rader conjectures that Murcheratus died around the year 1080.

LIFE,

by a Scottish monk of Regensburg, from a manuscript of the Carthusian house of Gaming, transcribed by John Gamansius of the Society of Jesus.

BHL Number: 5527

By an anonymous monk of Regensburg, from manuscripts.

CHAPTER I

The Irish converted to the faith, and their preaching of it elsewhere.

[1] The deeds of the holy Fathers and of any illustrious men whatsoever, however distinguished they may be, though supported by the authority and weight of venerable antiquity, unless they are commended to memory by faithful writings and diligent custody, Why the Author wrote this Life, will slip through the many spans of the centuries into the obscurity of oblivion as studies of letters decline into the negligence of modern times. For this reason it is in no way to be wondered at if the deeds and memorable histories of humble men have not been preserved for the ears of subsequent faithful by writings, but vanish into thin air like smoke from the eyes. Wherefore our predecessors -- and we likewise, poor followers of Christ -- for the remedy of souls, from the borders of the West, following the naked Christ in nakedness, leaving our homeland and dear kinsmen for the love and desire of the heavenly life, lest we seem to be Aborigines, like the vulture and the heron, whose birth and end are known to God alone -- how from the sweet soil of Ireland, under what teacher, under what princes, we began, by the leading of divine grace, to inhabit the suburbs of the illustrious city and pious mother of pilgrims, especially of the Scots -- the city of Regensburg -- I shall commend, after the measure of my smallness, however stammering in a childish and simple style, to the faithful of times to come.

[2] But perchance someone, out of a good zeal of piety toward pilgrims, or else inflicting upon them the mark of inconstancy, The Irish are devoted to pilgrimage: will ask: "Whence is it, and whence did this custom arise, that from the borders of Ireland, more than from other nations, the lights of the Saints make pilgrimage through the whole world, often enduring harsh cold and summer heat?" To this little question, though with lengthy circumlocutions, I shall answer by showing whence this custom arose.

[3] After the riddles of the Patriarchs and the enigmas of the Prophets concerning Christ -- On the occasion of paying tribute to the Romans, they hear of Christ: which had previously been obscured in Judea -- thundered through the walls of Rome by the voices of the Apostles, as the organ of the Holy Spirit, heavenly grace illuminated within and without the mistress of nations, the city of Rome, at the first origin of the nascent Church, and the renowned fame of so great a deed was most celebrated even to the farthest ends of the world, especially of the West. For in the times of Augustus Caesar, and likewise of Tiberius his rightful successor, tribute and taxes from the diverse regions of the world were brought to the aforesaid Fathers and the Roman Senate every year at a determined time. The bearers of those tributes, whatever notable reports and marvels they had heard anywhere, when they returned to their homelands, publicly announced them from their villages, strongholds, and cities.

[4] At the same time, by the providence of the most merciful living God, it happened that a certain young man of outstanding nobility and excellent appearance, having a name from the thing itself -- called Mansuetus -- from the borders of Ireland, was intimate with and received by the Blessed Apostle Peter at Rome. Instructed in the most blessed doctrine of that Father, By Saint Mansuetus, an Irish Bishop of Toul, the same youth was so imbued that, having received the power and license of preaching, by the command and authority of that same Apostle, he quickly subjected the fierce and untamed peoples of Lotharingia to the yoke of Christ. Lothar, the fourth son of Charlemagne, obtained Lotharingia (which is also called Germany) by his father's inheritance and named it after himself. Meanwhile the Blessed Mansuetus, for whom everything turned out as desired, reaching the Celefine regions along the Rhone and even to the African Sea and as far as the Illyrian gulfs, preaching the name of the Savior, returned to the illustrious and populous city of Toul, and after many victories, after glorious struggles, after outstanding works of miracles, there rested in peace. He, before he entered upon the way of all flesh, sent certain of his disciples -- men imbued with wisdom and prudence -- into Ireland, many years before the coming of the most blessed Father Patrick, preachers sent to them: so that those same envoys might proclaim by living voice, preaching throughout all the borders of Ireland -- with signs following -- the coming of the Savior descending from heaven into the womb of the Virgin, and the true faith and the true knowledge of the supreme Creator Adonai, received through the words and deeds and miracles of the Blessed Apostles Peter and Paul in the city of Rome among the rulers of the whole world and the powerful Roman people. The praiseworthy life and preaching of those men, by God's merciful providence, paved a most kindly path for the Apostle Patrick especially and provided easy access to preaching to those nations, even though they were idolaters.

[5] But after many courses of time, when the happy Patriarch Patrick, the foremost Apostle of the West, entered the aforesaid borders of Ireland and was received there with great honor and attendance of the people, almost the entire universality of that nation had given Patrick the readiest assent in believing; and after a few years, most of the rest later converted by Saint Patrick: except for the idolatrous King of the land, the common people submitted their necks with humble devotion to the sweet yoke of Christ, abandoning their idols. Moreover, let God know -- and let your kind sincerity know, brethren -- that if Cicero, the greatest master of Latin eloquence, were to attempt that fire of charity which Christ came to cast upon the earth, even with the full force of his eloquence, he could in no way (I think) worthily equal it in words. For what industrious philosopher as author, what orator so eloquent, with all his rhetorical colors, could credibly declare how a nation so barbarous, a people of such stiff necks, serving from the beginning of the world the most foul rites of idols, gave their estates and all their possessions to the Blessed Patrick, without any philosophy, merely upon hearing the name of the Savior?

[6] Furthermore, the same Father Patrick, establishing churches in various places, appointed Bishops and Priests -- men worthy of all honor -- in both the northern and southern parts of Ireland; many of these preached to foreign nations, of which Saints many, exchanging the sweet soil of their native land and their dear kinsmen for Christ and for eternal life, proclaimed to foreign nations the knowledge of their first origin, the faith of the holy

Church, the return to the homeland which Adam had lost -- afflicting their bodies with fasting, thirst, and cold, aspiring to the fellowship of the Angels -- they preached. Of their number, the most blessed^m Columban, illustrious son of the King of Ireland, filled with the Holy Spirit, converted Britain, Scotland, theⁿ Orkneys also, and the^o islands of the Gaels Saint Columba, to the faith of Christ, with God's help. After this Prophet, a man of venerable life came from Ireland, named Furseus, most illustrious in lineage, character, and life; whose Life the Blessed Bede describes in his History of the English, Saint Furseus, Book 3, Chapter 19, brilliant with shining signs and miracles. He, after enriching the northern part of England with the faith of Christ, with similar charity and preaching taught the northern part of France, which is called Vermandois, the knowledge of the Holy Trinity, and preaching the coming of the true Savior, there ended a tranquil life in peace. Saint Columban. But what shall I say of Saint Columban, who taught Christ, the Sun of Righteousness, to Italy on the flanks of the Apennine Mountains? Why should I recall Saint Gall, who illuminated Swabia with the abundance of his miracles, leading an anchoritic life? Saint Gall. Why do I delay, wishing to bring an infinite number to a definite limit? Why should I attempt to count the stars of heaven and the lesser stars, redeeming the time? Furthermore, to conclude everything briefly: after the burning flame of the Holy Spirit had effectively blown upon the peoples of Ireland in the times of the primitive Church, exchanging pilgrimage for their homeland, they so cast themselves into regions across the sea that they traversed by their preaching the remote and various parts of Europe.

p. The Life of Saint Furseus we gave on the 16th of January, in which he is said to have come to Saxony by way of the Britons, and to have been honorably received by Sigebert, King of the East Saxons; nor is there any reason to conjecture that the northern part of England was illuminated by him with the faith.

q. The manuscript had "Nermandisia" -- erroneously. Saint Furseus preached in the Vermandois.

r. Concerning Saint Columban and his monastery, Paul the Deacon writes in his History of the Lombards, Book 4, Chapter 43: "Around these times the Blessed Columban, sprung from the race of the Scots, Saint Columban, a Scot, after he had built a monastery in Gaul, in the place called Luxeuil, came to Italy, was gratefully received by the King of the Lombards, and built a monastery called Bobbio in the Cottian Alps, forty miles distant from the city of Pavia." Leander Albertus egregiously errs in his description of Cispadane Lombardy when he reports him to have been born of Gothic stock. Jonas the Abbot expressly states in the Life of Saint Columban, the 21st of November: "Columban, therefore, who is also called Columba, not a Goth, was born on the island of Ireland... this the Scottish nation inhabits."

s. Concerning the city and monastery of Saint Gall, we shall treat in the Life on the 16th of October.

CHAPTER II

Blessed Marianus, renowned in Germany for his writing and miracles.

[7] ^a Then, after the departure of such great men, shortly before the times of the pious Emperor^b Henry, from the borders of the aforesaid^c Ireland, a certain holy and simple man named Marianus -- of handsome countenance, shining hair, and form more beautiful than the common^d stature of men -- Blessed Marianus comes to Germany with John and Candidus: was endowed with divine and human letters and eloquence, so that no one who saw him would doubt that the Holy Spirit dwelt in him through indwelling grace. Having with him also two companions in all things like himself, holy men -- namely^e John and Candidus -- he came to Otto,^f Bishop of Bamberg, a holy and most celebrated man, with his companions. While they remained with the same Bishop for one year in clerical habit, given over to the utmost abstinence, intent upon tears and prayers day and night, serving God in the world, they observed the rules of the monastic life. One of them, moreover, surpassing the others -- namely Marianus -- extended himself by advancing in the degrees of the austere life.

[8] When the venerable man Otto of Bamberg, a supreme and special lover of the monastic religious life -- inasmuch as he established^g fifteen monasteries from his own resources of the aforesaid religious order -- perceived that those same men were striving after the precepts of the holy Rule and the heavenly commandments, urged by their humble entreating prayers, at the urging of Bishop Otto, he exhorted them to submit their necks to the sweet yoke of Christ and to adopt the monastic habit of the stricter life, of penance, and especially of religion. Giving their readiest assent to this counsel, they received the aforesaid habit of Saint Benedict from the holy Abbot^h of Saint Michael's. He receives the Benedictine habit. When the same holy man, the aforesaid Bishop Otto of Bamberg, observed that the brethren -- namely Marianus, John, and Candidus -- were laboring with all the efforts of fraternal peace and charity in the aforesaid cloister of Saint Michael's, and perceiving them to be ignorant and inexperienced in the Teutonic tongue, he lives with his companions in a cell: he prudently arranged for those same brethren a small cell at the foot of a neighboring mountain, so that there they might devote themselves more carefully and privately to the precepts of the divine law, and he provided grain and other necessaries for their use.

[9] When the holy man Otto had entered upon the way of all flesh,ⁱ the aforesaid brethren, not unmindful of their undertaken pilgrimage, desiring to visit the thresholds of the Apostles Peter and Paul at Rome, according to the custom of their nation, having obtained

the blessing and permission of the aforesaid Abbot of Saint Michael's, they arrived at Regensburg by a prosperous journey. He is kindly received at Regensburg by the nuns: And there, with the help of God's mercy, as true and long-awaited pilgrims, they were received with filial affection by the reverend mother of pilgrims, the Abbess of the Upper Monastery, named Hemma. But since they afterward resolved to await the day of judgment there, divine Providence bestowed upon Blessed Marianus so great a grace of writing that he inscribed many and lengthy volumes with his swift pen -- both in the Upper and in the Lower Monastery -- in honor and reverence of the first and supreme Virgin, and at the request of the holy virgins dwelling there, and with a view to the eternal reward. For, to speak truthfully and without any gloss of words, he skillfully copies many books, among all the deeds which divine mercy deigned to work through the same man, I judge it most worthy of praise and admiration, and admiring I marvel, that the same holy man wrote with his own hand the Old and New Testaments, together with expository commentaries on those same books -- not once, nor twice, but many times -- for the eternal reward, in a threadbare habit and on meager sustenance, aided by his own brethren, both in the Upper and Lower Monastery, who prepared the parchment. At the same time he also continually wrote many booklets and many handheld psalters for destitute widows and he gives them freely to the needy: and for poor clerics of that same city for the remedy of his soul, without any hope of earthly gain. Furthermore, by God's mercy so disposing it, many congregations of the monastic Order, which by faith and charity and in imitation of Blessed Marianus have been derived from the borders of the aforesaid Ireland, inhabiting Bavaria and Franconia as pilgrims, are for the most part supported by the writings of Blessed Marianus.

[10] Another thing in the same holy Father I commend by commending: that beyond the times of modern men -- as Father Isaac, who had lived one hundred and twenty years, a man of the gentlest nature, his contemporary and one who lived under his direction and obedience, often related to me, not without tears -- just as the holy Moses was the meekest of men who inhabited the earth, so was Saint Marianus most similar to him in all things. Renowned for miracles after death. Then what is the point of saying how many human beings of various kinds, how many oppressed by various diseases -- and especially fevers -- as I have heard from truthful reporters and seen with my own eyes, were restored to health at his tomb? When one day beside his tomb the brethren were exchanging jesting words among themselves, pertaining more to foolish merriment than to religion, he turns away vain talk, a most sweet odor -- as if from the flowers of Paradise -- breathing forth from his tomb pervaded the nostrils and ears of those speaking useless things. By this it was signified that only serious and fitting words, sounding forth divine praises, should be repeated there.

[11] At that time, in the Lower Monastery, a certain miracle most worthy of narration occurred for the revelation and disclosure of the same happy man. For on a certain night, when the same blessed man Marianus was writing I know not what divine volume in the Lower Monastery by lamplight, as was his custom, he writes at night, his fingers shining like candles, it happened through the negligence of the custodian of that church that lights were not provided for him. He himself, however, did not hesitate to write without any material light, because divine mercy caused the three fingers of his left hand to shine like three lamps, so that he might carry on his begun work unceasingly in such heavenly light. And when the Sacristan of that same church recalled to mind that she had not brought the lights to the holy man according to custom, rising from her bed and taking other virgins with her, she approached the cell of the man of God step by step, and through the cracks of the little door of the cell where the enclosed Blessed Marianus was writing, they beheld his fingers burning and that same little room shining with heavenly light, as if with the rays of the noonday sun. Terrified by this miracle and trembling at such a portent, the virgins disclosed the matter in order to the Lady Abbess and the other sacred virgins. And such a matter, so wonderful, was marvelously proclaimed by the Clergy and people of Regensburg, and was announced far and wide by the faithful heralds of the surrounding city as a most joyful report.

p. Rader: "Wauuaria" i.e., Bavaria.

q. Rader: "afterward."

r. Rader: "vital."

s. Rader: "and the candle." But there was no candle; rather his shining fingers illuminated the little room, or cell.

CHAPTER III

The church of Saint Peter given to Marianus. The monastery constructed.

[12] At the same time there was a man of great virtue and testimony from the borders of the same Ireland, [Blessed Marianus, after fasting and prayers and taking counsel of Blessed Murcheratus,] enclosed as a recluse in the Upper Monastery -- Murcheratus by name -- who for a long time before the arrival of Blessed Marianus had chosen for himself in that same cloister the narrow way by which one goes to the stars, and like one truly poor in spirit awaited the kingdom of God there. By the counsel and fellowship of this venerable man, Blessed Marianus, avoiding the praise and throng of the people, shared the counsel of the elder about the journey he had begun. To him the enclosed Blessed Murcheratus answered with a groan: "Let us fast today and beseech the Holy Spirit of counsel, that He may open to us, though sinners, the mind of the Most High -- whether it is His will that you remain here or seek the thresholds of the Apostles in the city of Rome." Then, on that same night, while Blessed Marianus was resting briefly on his bed, the Holy Spirit of counsel spoke to him: A sign indicated in sleep. "Early tomorrow morning, taking with you your companions -- namely John and Clement -- set out on the journey you have begun, and wherever the rising sun shines upon you in the new morning, there your bones shall rest until the day of judgment." And on the following day, bidding farewell to his beloved brother Murcheratus and other friends, just as he had been led by the divine voice, with a cheerful mind he began to set out on the road he loved, toward the walls of Rome. But wishing, as was his usual custom, to begin his journey from prayer, He is commanded to halt at the church of Saint Peter Consecrated. he entered with his brethren the basilica of the Blessed Apostle Peter outside the walls of that same city -- in which the holy man now rests -- and there with intent prayers they diligently asked God and the Blessed Apostle Peter that from the Blessed Peter of Regensburg to the most holy Roman Apostle Peter they might have a prosperous journey. Then, when their pious prayers were ended and they were crossing the threshold of that same church, behold, according to the aforesaid voice of the messenger, the newly risen sun on that first morning shone upon them there. Wherefore, falling on their knees, they paid fitting acts of thanks to the living God and to Blessed Peter, who had given them a place of rest and burial, with Marianus saying: "Here is my rest forever and ever; here I shall await the dread day of judgment."

[13] I think there is no doubt that joy was proclaimed to the sacred virgins of the city, to whom Blessed Marianus had previously been a most beloved pilgrim, which is given to him, and to the Clergy and people of Regensburg, when it became known that the same Marianus, the friend of God, had been thus detained by a divine oracle. In the same fervor of charity, the blessed mother of pilgrims, Hemma, Abbess of the Upper Monastery, freely handed over the aforesaid church and the place for a cell to Marianus and his followers, at the request and prayer of the pious Emperor Henry the Elder, in perpetuity. And a monastery is built. And so the fellow citizens of that same city -- especially Bethselmus the citizen, a man of blessed memory, filled with divine love -- built a cloister and cloister buildings at their own expense, in view of the eternal reward, which, though small, were nevertheless suitable for a few pilgrims.

[14] But when that same cloister had been begun, and its fame, flying on the lips of pilgrims seeking the most diverse thresholds, had been carried first to the northern parts of Ireland, Many Irish flock there, whence the holy man was originally from, many of his fellow citizens -- who had known his boyhood and youth as wholly dedicated to God -- leaving behind their possessions and dear kinsmen, casting aside perishable things for the eternal with a cheerful spirit, and through so many seas and through so many pathless kingdoms, followed Christ and the man of God, Marianus. For when the same blessed man Marianus, for whom everything had turned out as desired, was destined by his parents for the rudiments of the ^dliterary art and the knowledge of the divine law, and for divine service, for the remedy of their souls, a certain ^ewise elder, moved by an ancient prophecy about him, who, filled with the divine Spirit, was accustomed to predict future events, said to the same Marianus when he was then a boy: "O beloved of the Lord, if life be your companion, you will unite many faithful and many pilgrims to Christ." His fellow provincials, holding this oracle in their mindful hearts, followed the same Marianus from the paternal borders of the West, with the Holy Spirit leading and inflaming them.

[15] Furthermore, I can scarcely declare at present -- incredible as it is to recount -- how great and celebrated the friend of God became within a few years, in the number of brethren and in the monastic religious life. For up to the times of the younger Emperor ^fHenry, who drove his father from the kingdom, in that same place seven venerable men as Abbots, The seventh Abbot there was Domnus, worthy successors of the same holy man Marianus, arose from the same nation from the borders of Northern Ireland. Of these the last was a celebrated man, most renowned throughout all Bavaria for his reputation of religion and wondrous simplicity, named ^gDomnus, who was the first to have come from the part of Southern Ireland. For Clement, a most ardent lover of Christ and of pilgrimage, the third in the number of companions of the same holy man who came from the homeland, Clement died at Jerusalem, wishing to visit the sepulcher of the living Christ along with all those who were coming, went to Jerusalem to save his soul and there ended his life in peace. By a similar reasoning and fervor, John, a lover of inner charity, leaving Blessed Marianus and his dear kinsmen out of desire for eternal life, entered ^hGöttweig in Austria, and undertaking the way of stricter discipline, caused himself to be ⁱenclosed there as a recluse. John lives holily in Austria. And while for some time he remained enclosed in that same place, striving in tears and lamentation and frequent fasting, and when the fame of so austere a life had filled the ears of the Lord ^kPope, the Pope conferred upon the same John, as a recluse and a special pilgrim, the power of binding and loosing throughout all Bavaria and Austria.

CHAPTER IV

The monastery of Saint James of the Scots at Regensburg, built and founded.

[16] After this, when the brethren had multiplied in the place of the blessed Father Marianus at Regensburg, The Scots build the monastery of Saint James at Regensburg, which was so narrow and confined -- inasmuch as the fields of other churches on all sides hemmed it in and pressed upon the space suitable for a cell there -- the spacious buildings of a cloister could not extend inward according to their number. Having taken counsel of their friends, with the permission of the Lord Pope Calixtus and of the Emperor Henry the Younger, purchasing from Count Frederick of Francinhys for thirty talents of Regensburg coinage a plot of land to the west outside the walls of the city of Regensburg, through the mediation of Otto, Prefect of Regensburg, they laid there the foundation of a monastery in honor of Saint James the Apostle and Saint Gertrude the Virgin, in the name of the holy and undivided Trinity; and with the Lord cooperating, and with the wealthiest citizens of Regensburg likewise generously administering provisions for the brethren and wages for the stonecutters from their own resources, in view of the eternal reward, with the help of the citizens, Domnus, the first Abbot of that place, brought the begun work -- unfinished and fragile though it was on account of excessive haste -- to completion as best he could.

[17] Then a certain industrious man among the brethren of that same place, Alms obtained from the King of Russia, and most skilled in the conduct of affairs, named Maurice, traveling alone with only a single boy as companion through the remote regions of the world, guided by the grace of the Holy Spirit, arrived at the King of Russia, and from that same King and the Princes of the wealthiest city of Kiev received precious furs worth one hundred marks; and carrying them by wagons, he arrived peacefully at Regensburg with the merchants. From the proceeds of these, the buildings of the cloister were constructed, and also the roof of the monastery was made.

[18] After this, when Abbot Domnus had entered upon the way of all flesh, a noble man, resplendent with the light of eloquence, named Christian, succeeded as Abbot. Christian, the second Abbot, subjects it to the Pope. But lest he seem to change the place rashly or inconsiderately, or to transfer the abbey from its first foundation, the same Abbot Christian, with the commendation and permission of the Bishop of Regensburg, seeking Pope Innocent, entrusted the cloister of Saint James of the Scots with all its appurtenances to the protection and defense of the same, and also to the patronage of the Roman Curia; by which Pope Innocent the same Christian was reverently consecrated as Abbot. Then, so that this might remain unshaken and unchanged forever, the same Pope Innocent, the most merciful father of the poor, commended the care and protection, as well as the advocacy, of the aforesaid cloister in such a way with the Emperor enrolled as protector that, in view of the eternal reward and without any temporal use, the Emperor Henry and his successors should defend the cloister -- as one belonging to the Roman Curia and to the Lord Emperor -- from every injury.

[19] When these things were accomplished and the cloister had been made free and stable, the happy Father Christian, the Abbot, revisiting the paternal borders of Ireland, was received with such worthy honor among the Kings and Princes of that same land, and to such an extent was he accepted, that two hundred marks of silver were bestowed upon him, and he returned joyfully to his own. From which resources the same Father Christian did not raise walls or cloister buildings; but, what was far better, With money collected in Ireland he buys estates, as one provident and foreknowing of the future, he purchased fields and possessions, for the use of brethren both present and future, through the mediation of Henry, Burgrave of Regensburg, and Otto, Landgrave.

[20] Then, when divine clemency had looked down from heaven and seen the holy and simple men, with the aiding grace of the Holy Spirit, thus far from their homeland extending themselves in walls, in possessions, and in monastic religious life, He inspired the minds of noble men in Bavaria and of the citizens of Regensburg to bestow burial places, fields, and estates for the use of the poor of Christ, upon God and Saint James, with great devotion. Among these nobles, the first and foremost was a freeborn man named ⁿGundatar, who gave himself and his goods, and many estates with his wife, Many nobles bestow various goods on that monastery, with great charity and friendship, for the salvation of their souls, conferring many things for Christ there. After these, Hermann Branner and Engliwar bestowed their vineyards and nearby fields, with the same intention, upon God and upon the same brethren. Then Bertha, a most blessed and simple dove without gall, a shining star of charity of the Empire, the wife of Henry, Burgrave of Regensburg, of blessed memory, piously assigned her own burial place, two vineyards, and seven plowlands in Austria to God and to Blessed James, and also to the pilgrim brethren of that place. Furthermore, the most noble man Berthold of Schwarzenburg, through the mediation of the Emperor Conrad, while they were going to Jerusalem, established thirty plowlands for that same cloister, in the village called Didenburg, with forests and all meadows and their appurtenances, with ardent desire. Moreover, Linchardis, the Advocatess of the Church of Regensburg, a most devout woman, who like a heroic woman dwelt for many years of her widowhood in the religious habit with the pilgrim brethren, bringing herself and many comforts for the sick brethren of the cloister and many estates with her to God, was buried in our Chapter House with the Lady Bertha. When all these things were completed, the most energetic man, the free and noble Lord Rupert Lupus, led by divine favor, devoted himself and many of his goods to God and to Saint James. Many others also, even if they were not equally distinguished by the renown of such great nobility, sacrificed gold and silver and other things useful to the brethren to the aforesaid cloister, buying heaven for earthly things.

p. Conrad III, Emperor, set out for the Holy Land with a strong army in the year 1147, but accomplished nothing worthy, vexed by the treachery of the Greeks.

q. This is she whom Aventinus above calls Litogard, wife of Frederick, Count of Bogen, Steward of the church of Regensburg. Concerning Frederick II, Lazius writes in the genealogy of the Counts of Bogen from Aventinus: "He begot from Luitgard Frederick III and Hartwig." But in the earlier family tree of the same Counts he makes Luitgard the wife of Hartwig II. Perhaps the Author also wrote Luithardis, or Liuthardis, which signifies "heart of the people," or rather Luitgardis, as commonly, that is, "garden of the people." But from what etymology does Aventinus derive "Litogarda"? It is habitual for that author to deflect words from their common, even among the learned, accepted formation into another seemingly softer form, which neither Teutonic etymology nor Latin nor Greek generally supports. It suffices for him to have spoken and written differently from how people usually do.

CHAPTER V

The monastery of Saint James of the Scots at Würzburg; of Saint Giles at Nuremberg.

[21] Then, by the working of God's grace, as the multiple number of brethren grew, the most kindly fame of that same cloister had spread itself far and wide, not only through the borders of Bavaria but even as far as Franconia. At Würzburg, a monastery founded for the Scots: Wherefore the happy Patriarch, Bishop Henry of the Church of Würzburg, granted the Scots a place for a cell and fields sufficient for the needs of the brethren in the suburb of Würzburg, by reason of his kinship with God and Saint Kilian, with cheerful devotion and with the people of Würzburg applauding. To govern that place, together with some brethren, Abbot Christian of the Scots of Regensburg dispatched a man full of God, named Macarius -- most learned in the divine law and most celebrated throughout all Ireland for his prolonged studies of the liberal arts -- as Abbot. This Macarius entered upon the narrow way that leads to life in such a manner that he reduced his body by the service of God to such an extent that he girded himself with the harshest wooden torques, with no one knowing or seeing except himself, The first Abbot, Blessed Macarius, of austere life, so that they inflicted deep wounds on his arms and sides. And what was more grievous still, abstaining from the use of richer food, he abstained from all drink that might gladden the mind, as from poison. Whence it happened that on a certain day, when the same blessed man Macarius, abstainer from wine, compelled by a certain necessity, was visiting the blessed Father Bishop Embrico, that same Bishop ordered drink to be served in the customary manner to honor those arriving, and commanded that wine be offered first to Blessed Macarius. But the holy man Macarius, wishing to preserve the virtue of abstinence, said: "Today, my Father, I do not drink wine." But the happy Embrico replied: "I command you by holy obedience, in reverence of the holy Martyr Kilian, and I entreat you, to taste with me at least a sip of this wine." But what was the holy man Macarius to do, who had been placed between Scylla and Charybdis -- that is, between the virtue of abstinence and the precept of obedience? Which part should he violate? Which part should he obey? But by divine inspiration he took up the cup and tasted a little of the wine. Then Macarius himself, filled within and without by the spirit of the Lord, offering the cup with the same wine to the Bishop, said: "I beseech you, Reverend Father, with similar charity, though boldly, which was turned to water for him, that you would now deign to drink again from the same cup." And when the Father Bishop tasted of the same wine, marveling not a little and calling the cup-bearer, he said: "Wicked servant, what is this you have presumed to do? Why did you presume to serve me and Abbot Macarius pure water rather than from the rich cellar of Saint Kilian?" But the cup-bearer, calling heaven and earth to witness, swore that he had served with his own hand from the best wine of the entire cellar. Then the Bishop, giving credence to the words of the one swearing, with his own holy hand brought the water made from wine to all who were sitting in the hall to taste. The Bishop solemnly publishes the miracle. Then the clergy marvel; then the people gather; then the bells are rung at the greatness of the deed; then the same Bishop, publicly proclaiming in the ears of the people the outstanding merits of the happy Abbot Macarius, together with the chief men of the whole city, led him back to his cloister with pomp and glory.

[22] When these heavenly signs had been marvelously proclaimed far and wide throughout the whole diocese of Würzburg, The death of Macarius foretold by a heavenly portent, a prodigy occurred miraculously before the church of Blessed James, in which Blessed Macarius now rests. For before the gate of the same monastery, to the south, on a certain clear night with the moon shining, while matins were being chanted, behold a tower of fire, reaching from earth to heaven, illuminated the city and the whole region like the noonday sun in summertime, with the entire populace watching. On the following day the clergy and people, seeing the place from which the flaming tower had emerged, sacrificed much silver to Blessed Macarius and his brethren, out of compunction at the heavenly flame, saying that one of them, a soul blazing with fraternal charity, was evidently ascending to heaven from the neighboring cloister -- an event which they considered to be prefigured by that sign. These prophetic words foreshadowed the death of Blessed Macarius as soon to come. For after fourteen days, according to the conjecture of those same men, the soul of the holy man, departing from the prison of the flesh, flew on the wings of virtue to the joys of the Angels.

[23] Then they elected as a most worthy Abbot a man filled with the grace of the Holy Spirit, named Gregory, from the cloister of the Scots of Regensburg, The second Abbot, Gregory, who, having a name befitting the reality, watching over the flock committed to him, was so devoted toward the poor, and especially pilgrims, that whatever his hand could obtain, he distributed publicly and privately to the needy. In such pursuit, after a few years, he passed to Christ with a cheerful mind. A holy man. When in the same year a certain man possessed by a demon was led in bonds by his friends to that same church, so that the brethren there might beseech the clemency of the Most High for him, after prayers were poured forth for him they placed the same sick man upon the sepulchral stone of the same Abbot, bound as he was, and immediately the demoniac, aided by the merits of the outstanding Father, vomited forth innumerable coals of the blackest kind.

[24] When these Fathers had died, they elected as Abbot a man full of grace and truth, the Prior of those same Scots of Regensburg, named Carus, who usefully planted many vineyards and orchards in that same place, The third Abbot, Carus, Chaplain of the Emperor, erected buildings,

[26] When these venerable Fathers had entered the way of all flesh, and when Abbot Christian also had died in Ireland in the midst of his days, the convent of the Scots of Regensburg elected as Abbot their Prior -- in whose faith and hand Abbot Christian had entrusted the abbey both internally and externally -- named Gregory, a vigilant and gentle man and a prudent manager in the conduct of affairs, with God's approval and in harmonious peace. The monastery of Saint James at Regensburg restored by Gregory, the third Abbot. He also, relying on the aiding grace of God, broke down the old monastery -- which was dilapidated and crumbling, and which the ancient Fathers, as I explained above, had with the utmost haste built rather imprudently -- boldly, excepting the towers, and with Christ's help, building it anew from the foundation to the summit with squared and polished stones, he covered that same monastery with lead, adorning the pavement with squared stones smoothed on the surface, and no less adorning the cloister with carved capitals and bases, and moreover with a water conduit within the same church. Having also purchased many fields externally and usefully planted vineyards, he evidently enriched it both within and without.

[27] At the same time the magnificent man, ornament of the Empire, a shining star, burning with charity toward the poor of Christ -- ^aHenry, Duke of Austria, A monastery given to the Scots at Vienna, most worthy heir and grandson of both the elder and the younger ^bHenry -- preferring the Scottish nation to all the poor of Christ, magnificently handed over to the same Abbot the ^ccloister which he himself had established at his own expense. To govern that church

the aforesaid Abbot dispatched a man full of grace and truth, having a name befitting the reality -- Sanctinus -- with twenty-four brethren. The praise and memory of this Abbot Sanctinus paved a kindly path for his followers throughout all Austria. When Sanctinus was closing the day of his life, a certain one of the brethren asked him what he had seen. He answered: "I see a leafy tree beyond the common measure, where Sanctinus, the first Abbot, is refreshed by a heavenly vision near death: reaching from earth to heaven, and birds of wondrous whiteness in the form of doves, descending from the summit of heaven through the branches of that same tree to the lowest parts, and through those same branches I see those same birds flying back up to heaven." The brethren, interpreting this vision with mystical understanding, judged that the same tree represented the ladder of Jacob -- that is, the love of God and neighbor -- by which Angels ascend and descend to order divine and human affairs.

[28] Meanwhile, with God prospering, while the Church of Saint James was extending itself forward both within and without -- that is, as the number of brethren multiplied, while buildings rose up and estates were acquired -- Given also at Eichstätt, behold a devout man, a great and wealthy man, the Provost of the Church of Eichstätt, named Walbrun, happily exchanging earthly things for heavenly, handed over the church which he himself had built at his own expense in the suburb of Eichstätt, together with seventeen plowlands, to the aforesaid Abbot Gregory of Saint James and to the Scottish nation, through the mediation of ^dCount Gerhard, in the Bavarian manner, touched by the love of eternal rest.

[29] But although I could dwell upon such matters at greater length, it nevertheless seems better to tend toward the end of the work, lest I generate the ingratitude of tedium in the ears of my hearers. The Regensburg monastery subject to none. But among other things I judge most worthy of admiration that, so far from their homeland, with the sole help of God, without the assistance of any earthly Prince or any Bishop, holy and simple pilgrim men from the borders of Ireland, from the suburb of Regensburg, prudently and wisely established a church in honor of the ^eGod of Jacob, and by the help of the living God, by the counsel and aid of Pope Calixtus and of the pious Emperor Henry the Elder, made it so free that neither the Emperor, nor the Bishop of Regensburg, nor the Duke of Bavaria, nor the Prefect of that same city, nor indeed any man except the Scots, can truthfully say: "This is my planting, this is my institution; by hereditary right I can possess this house of God, this sanctuary."

[30] The lesser house of Saint Peter subject to and united with it. Furthermore, as I stated above, the few goods that had been bestowed upon Saint Peter's outside the walls were transferred to the church of Blessed James in such a way that there would be one and the same Abbot and one convent of both places, in the unity of peace and obedience. A Prior, elected by the will and ordinance of the Abbot of Saint James and the convent, was to govern the place of Saint Peter outside the walls on this condition: that he be obedient and subject to the Abbot of Saint James. For the sustenance of those same brethren dwelling at Saint Peter's, five plowlands and three vineyards were assigned by the common counsel of the Abbot and the convent. Furthermore, if the brethren of Saint Peter's need or wish to come to us for their meal on any day, such a portion is set before them as for any one of the brethren of the larger congregation.

[31] Since therefore this transfer was made by the counsel and permission of the holy Pope Calixtus and of Henry the Elder, and with the commendation and permission of the Bishop of Regensburg, with the Pope approving, and by the counsel and aid of Otto, Burgrave of Regensburg, and his brother Henry, and so that this arrangement might remain ratified and unshaken forever, it was confirmed by the privileges of five Apostolic Pontiffs -- namely ^fCalixtus, Innocent, Eugenius, Adrian, and Alexander. Furthermore, I do not doubt at all, brethren, that it was foreseen by divine will and from eternity in God's providence that two congregations from the borders of the western world should be established at the exits of the city of Regensburg, one to the east and the other to the west, so that there, far from their homeland, for the welfare of the city, for the peace and salvation of the Clergy and people of that same city, and also for the Empire and its Prelates, like watchmen of the living, they might beseech the clemency of the Most High day and night.

[32] But perhaps someone, brethren, wishing to make certain the reward of pilgrims, will ask me what the prize will be for Blessed Marianus and for those who piously and devoutly desire to follow in his footsteps -- those who, leaving the sweet soil of their native land Praise of Ireland (a soil, I say, sequestered from every kind of serpent and all noxious vermin), the mountains and hills and valleys and forests suited for hunting, the most pleasant streams of rivers and green lands and rivers from pure springs, like sons of Abraham the Patriarch cast themselves into the land which God had shown them? Behold, I answer: what will be their reward? Dwelling in the house of the eternal God forever and ever, with Angels and Archangels, they will dispose ascents in their hearts; they will go from virtue to virtue; they will see in Zion the God of gods -- to whom is honor and glory forever and ever.